Chapter 33
THIRTY-THREE
Harley tells me not to make plans for my Saturday.
When I ask him why, he gives me a smug, haughty smile. I’d be pissed about it but all three of my guys keep sharing these little secretive looks and eventually I give up and just go with it. I’m stupid enough to ask Avery if she knows what’s going on, and she gives me her own smug fucking smile.
“Why don’t you ask your lover?”
I could die.
She screeches with laughter at my blush. “I’m so glad to know that having sex hasn’t stopped you from blushing like an eighteenth-century Contessa on her wedding night.”
So that’s the end of my inquiries.
I wake to pancakes and coffee for breakfast and then Harley drives us all into Haven in the Maserati.
Apparently he won a bet about Avery, but I’m too afraid to ask what the hell it was.
Blaise sulks in the back with me, dicking around to piss Harley off, but my golden god is above the petty bullshit today.
I finally break and ask him why he’s so happy, and he gives me a smug look in the mirror.
“We’re getting tattoos. Do you have any idea how long I’ve waited to get your insignia on me? I fucking hate that Illi’s had it all this time and I haven’t.”
I blanch, fucking shocked that that’s what’s going on. “You don’t have to. None of you do.”
He gives me a look in the mirror. “I only waited because the others hadn’t been inducted. I’m not waiting anymore.”
Avery rolls her eyes at him, then smiles at me. “We are all doing this. As a family, even if there are needles and bodily fluids involved.”
Blaise roars with laughter at her. “How’s Atticus faring with your hatred of bodily fluids? Does he know he’s going to have to wear a hazmat suit to fuck you?”
I groan as Ash turns to stone next to me, but Avery snarks back before he can come to her defense.
“I don’t want his fluids or any other fucking piece of shit man that walks this Earth. I’m taking a vow of celibacy because you’re all fucked,” she says through clenched teeth, and my stomach drops. Fucking Atticus.
I sigh, wondering how the hell I’m going to help her with this now we’ve agreed to work with him. That’s a fucking headache to think about later. I lace my fingers into Ash’s.
“Do you know where you’re getting yours?” I murmur, trying to distract him from the conversation happening around us. If I didn’t already know, his clenched jaw would tell me everything about his exact feelings toward Atticus.
He stares out the window, a frown over his brow and replies, “We discussed it after Colors Night, we’re all getting the same thing. Well, not Avery. I’m sure you’ll find it suitable, Mounty.”
I nod and rub my thumb along the back of his hand.
Harley parks behind the tattoo parlor and as we all pile out of the car, I rub my arms, the chill in the air biting at me. Ash tucks me under his arm and leads me in.
The guy sitting behind the reception desk nods at Blaise and they start talking shit about how his last tattoos turned out.
One of the tattoo artists looks Avery up and down dismissively, obviously used to Hannaford girls and their rich bitch attitudes, and she stares him down like he’s a steaming pile of shit.
Then his eyes flick over to me and he frowns. Ash cuts in front of me and snarls at him, “What the fuck is your problem?”
The guy raises his hands in submission. “Nothing, man. She just looks familiar, that’s all. I thought I recognized her.”
Blaise starts to snicker under his breath, and I sigh.
“Any chance you’re from Mounts Bay?” Avery says, sickly sweet, like poison.
He nods and pulls his chair up, ready to draw up the design. A group of high school girls come in for piercings, and I start getting twitchy at the looks my guys get. Avery rolls her eyes at me but joins me in glaring at them.
When Harley tells the guy they all want the same thing, he cracks a lame joke about boy bands and Ash looks ready to gut him.
Then Harley gets a UV torch out of his pocket and shines it on my face.
The tattoo artist shits his fucking pants.
Oh, goodie.
“You get that it takes a week to heal, right? There are only a few weeks left until winter break, why didn’t you just wait until then? You can’t go to classes with that on your face!” Avery hisses, but they all ignore her completely.
I sit in the corner in a state of shock.
The tattoo artist from the Bay took a good ten minutes to calm down enough to trace the image out nicely, but the tremor in his fingers is finally gone.
I try to look friendly and approachable, but I think that only freaks him out more.
Something about me being an assassin and renowned killer has him unnerved. Who knew?
Then he hands it off to the second guy and we’re in business.
Harley and Blaise go first, unflinching and completely at ease as the needle drags through their cheeks.
The jaw bones and sharp teeth only make them look hotter, the assholes, and the giggling girls in the corner refuse to leave after their belly button piercings are finished.
Finally, after one of them tries to talk to Harley, the receptionist kicks them out.
The blond gets snooty and tries to play the rich daddy card but Avery only laughs at her, the cruel edge cutting.
“These are gang tattoos, you dense bitch. Do you want to risk a bullet by fucking the boss’s boy?”
They scurry out quickly after that. I glare at Avery and she shrugs, smug as always.
It takes an hour and Ash smirks at Harley when he gets taped up, puffy and grumpy at the inconvenience.
Avery cringes the second the gel hits her skin to transfer her little wolf onto her wrist, but she doesn’t flinch at the needle piercing her skin.
Hers only takes ten minutes, being so small, and I make my decision to cement myself in the family with them.
I catch the tattoo guy’s eye and ask him to tattoo me as well. He blanches for a second and then recovers nicely, nodding and clearing his throat.
When I point out Harley’s tattoo, he agrees quickly but when I move to take my pants off, all hell breaks loose.
“What the fuck are you doing?!” Harley hisses, and Avery giggles at him.
I glare back at him, and then over his shoulder at Blaise. “I’m getting a tattoo as well. Go wait with Avery, it’ll only take a few minutes.”
Harley plants his ass in the seat next to the tattooing table and refuses to move like the stubborn asshole he is, and Blaise takes up watch by the door.
I roll my eyes and try to ignore them as best I can.
By chance I’m wearing my most modest panties but, given that Ash picks them out for me, they’re still fairly sheer.
Harley glares at the tattoo artist like it’s his damn fault.
“I want it on my panty line, where my hip meets my thigh, because it’s fucking personal and the only people I want seeing it are you three dickheads so lay off,” I snap, and he calms down a little.
Then I zone the fuck out while the family creed is inked into my skin, a permanent reminder that I belong to them just as much as they belong to me.
I couldn’t be fucking happier with it.
We take the next week off while the tattoos heal and spend it in the boys’ room watching trashy thriller movies Blaise loves and drinking too much whiskey.
Avery continues to go to her classes and tells the teachers we’ve caught mono, something they all accept without question because who in their right mind argues with a Beaumont?
Blaise and I mess around with the song list for his new album, him playing the guitar and me sweating as I sing without my earplugs in but fuck, we sound perfect together.
Ash bans us from singing around Avery because the second we start he ends up hard as stone and drooling for me.
It’s a nice fucking compliment, better than any stupid roses he could ever give me.
Harley cooks me French toast and insists I eat it in bed, sulking when I refuse to do it naked.
I’m positive it would quickly turn into an orgy if I did, and I’m not quite sure I’m ready for that.
There’s an unspoken agreement amongst the boys not to talk about my new non-virginal status, thank fuck.
On the Sunday, I step into the shower, getting ready for bed and pouting that my week off has come to an end, when Harley ducks in behind me. I give him stern look that quickly melts away because sweet lord fuck, he is glorious to look at.
His personality ain’t bad either.
“You’re going to flit back to your room tomorrow and I’ll have to make do with the smell of you on my sheets. You’ve turned me into some pathetic sap; it’s fucking sad.”
I snort at him, blushing wildly, and then I grab the soap to wash him, any excuse to run my hands over the solid plains of muscle on his chest.
“You’ll just come and sleep in my bed anyways. I’ll try to sleep here a bit more. We can work something out. What are we going to do after winter break when we’re all used to being in the same bed all of the time?”
Harley groans and rubs his dick against my belly. “You’re going to move in here next semester. Fuck it, Avery needs to work her magic to switch out for the room next door. We all know she could make it happen and she absolutely would if it meant we can live together.”
My teasing dries up in my throat because, fuck, that sounds perfect.